Mozambique Road Trip – Finale at Kruger National Park

With Mozambique behind us, it was time to return to Johannesburg, but not before a little detour to the majestic Kruger National Park (KNP).

On all my previous excursions into the KNP which, I was very lucky to spot the famous Big Five – Lion, Elephant, Buffalo, Leopard and Rhinoceros. This turn of luck is no doubt aided by the fact that the bush is still fairly dry at this time of year, which makes animal spotting easier. Going into Summer, the African bush is more lush and dense, and animals are not exactly keen to show themselves, preferring to laze in the shade.

This time however, I not only did not sight any Leopards, the solitary Lion, Buffalo and Rhino I did glimpse, were hard to photograph. And it was overcast overhead.

Elusive Rhinoceros

However, antelope, deer and various types of buck are plentiful in the Park and quite easy to spot.. Giraffe are also in abundance…

Bucking the trend

Hellooo!

See how tall I am…

…and zebras too.

Lonesome zebra

While having lunch on the viewing deck of a restaurant at Lower Sabie Rest Camp, we were besieged by multi-coloured birds vying to get at any scraps that may be left. This one sat patiently within view of my table.

Lower Sabie Rest Camp

The lion may be king of the jungle, but out here nobody messes with the mighty elephant. We were forced on more than one occasion to back up our cars as a troop of elephants came along. The parents are especially protective over the young, and would not hesitate to pulverize anything they perceive as a danger to the calves.

Mighty king of the Park

And so ended another memorable road trip…

Should South Africa trade in rhino horn legally?

South Africa is facing an onslaught from poachers who are decimating our rhino population to satisfy the demand from mainly the Far East [Vietnam in particular], of ignorant people who believe quite absurdly that the horn is some sort of cure for a multitude of physical ailments.

Last year more than 400 rhinos were slaughtered illegally, and four months into this year nearly 200 more have been killed.

The Ministry for the Environment announced today that they are contemplating approaching the international community to lift the ban on trade in rhino horn so that South Africa can sell it legally, in an attempt to disrupt or destroy the poaching business. Reports indicate that South Africa may be sitting on a stockpile of around 20 tons of the stuff, which is estimated to be worth around R 500 000 a kilogram. That’s several times the value of gold.

Like many things in life, the answer is not straightforward and there are both pros and cons.

What do you think? Vote below:

Autumn in the United States: Photos by National Geographic

I love Autumn, but not as much as Winter.

However, Autumn offers a visual feast for photographers; a cornucopia of colours and sensations.

Japanese Maple from National Geographic

View more stunning Autumn photographs from National Geographic using the link below:

Photo Gallery – Autumn in the United States

Listen up, you oriental berks, rhino horn does not cure cancer

Just over a year ago I wrote about how poachers were decimating South Africa’s rhino population, driving another species towards extinction.

At that time around 210 had been killed already, but the latest figures indicate that the total for 2010 reached a record 333. However, the figures for this year thus far is an alarming 341 animals killed, which works out at almost one a day.

Image via Wikipedia

And it’s all for feeding the ignorant oriental belief that rhino horn cures cancer among other diseases.

The biggest culprits driving the killing of rhinos for their horns remain Vietnam and China. It appears that their respective governments could not be bothered in the least to implement measures to curb the trade in rhino horn. One wonders if the ageing Commie despots running these countries, are not indulging in rhino shavings themselves, to prolong their tenure in office, dealing more misery to their people.

It’s a scandal that a magnificent beast is giving up its life, not to sustain human life as livestock do, but to sustain a delusional belief system.

So listen up! Stop being yellow monkeys! If you’ve got cancer, go to a fucking doctor for treatment, or die with dignity. Don’t be grasping at horns. Let the beasts be…

What’s that I see?

The pink, purple and white blooms are poking their way through the roadside vegetation once again. Cosmos!

On the South African highveld this only means one thing. Winter is coming. Glorious, beautiful winter. I’m in ecstacy already!

Hurry up and piss off, extended-Summer! And please take your fucking mosquitoes with you…

The World Is Too Much With Us

Of all the poetry I read way back when, while in high-school this sonnet written by William Wordsworth around 1806, is the only one from which I can still remember any lines.

I never really liked poetry, until well after I had left school and started deciphering and understanding (sort off) the lyrics of my favorite songs. But this sonnet impressed me so much because of a simple observation by Wordsworth; that the irreligious may have a much greater understanding of, and appreciation for the natural world.

The lines from Wordsworth that are still indellibly etched in my memory are “Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers” and “I’d rather be a Pagan suckled…” That’s it, but heres the rest:

THE world is too much with us; late and soon,
          Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
          Little we see in Nature that is ours;
          We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
          The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
          The winds that will be howling at all hours,
          And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
          For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
          It moves us not.–Great God! I’d rather be
          A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;                         
          So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
          Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
          Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
          Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Another nail in the Creation coffin

NASA’s major announcement on the 2nd of December basically just confirms what scientists have been saying all along; life adapts to its environment and evolves. Bleh!

The announcement follows findings from a recent study that demonstrates how a bacterium can survive using arsenic instead of phosphorus to develop its cell components. As all creationists supposedly know, arsenic is lethal to humans, but through this scientific study, they now also know that it is not lethal to all forms of life. Off course, we may have to first convince some if not all of them, that microorganisms like bacteria also constitute life.

And what of all that bunkum about the earth being placed the perfect distance from the sun and blessed with the right mix of elements to support life?

It has long been thought that carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and phosphorus which is a basic element of DNA and RNA, were an essential mix for sustaining life as we know it. This new discovery proves different, as pointed out by  Ed Weiler, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate in Washington:

The definition of life has just expanded. As we pursue our efforts to seek signs of life in the solar system, we have to think more broadly, more diversely and consider life as we do not know it.

I wonder what Ken Ham and other evolution denialists will conjure up to discredit or rubbish this latest discovery? What new pseudoscientific explanation or crackpot display at the Creation Museum will they dream up to offset this latest nail in their creation coffin? What new feats of mental gymnastics will they demand from their followers?

The rational world waits with bated breath!

Warning labels are generally just plain dumb

So there I was yesterday, sipping on a JD and Coke, reading this blog about a guy who bought a costume outfit from a toy shop for his 3-year old daughter, and only later noticed the tiny warning label “CONTAINS LEAD. MAY BE HARMFUL IF EATEN OR CHEWED…” As I finished reading, I glanced over towards the near-full, square bottle containing my evening’s liquid pleasure on the table besides me, and noticed the label “ALCOHOL REDUCES DRIVING ABILITY. DON’T DRINK AND DRIVE”

Still in a lucid state, I immediately thought how stupid that warning label was. I simply could not imagine anyone drinking that heavenly liquid saying “OK, I’m going to make a point of not driving after drinking this.” No, those who don’t actually drive after consuming the alcohol, do so simply because they’re shit scared of being caught by the police while under the influence, or are amazingly decent human beings who have made alternative transport arrangements or had no intention of driving at all. I just don’t buy the idea that the warning label influences behaviour in any way.

Take the typical warning label on packs of cigarettes: SMOKING CAUSES LUNG CANCER. I just can’t imagine smokers reading this warning and then bursting out “Oh shit! I’m quitting right now!” Off course, some people may be influenced by the label to eventually quit, but I doubt anyone does it right away. People quit to make lifestyle changes or simply because it becomes too expensive. Personally, I quit not because of the health warnings, but because I had reduced the amount of stress I was experiencing by making a few changes in my life, the chief of which was losing my religion. Anyway, the same government authorities who push for compulsory warning labels, are the same shits who reap a huge tax income from the sale of tobacco products. The savings I now make by not buying cigarettes are ploughed back into the pleasure system, through the purchase of premium alcohol products; inter alia, Johnny Red & Captain Morgan will simply not do.

To really demonstrate the absurdity of warning labels, why don’t we have them on knives for instance. You don’t see “DO NOT TAKE TO SCHOOL, STABBING IS NOT PART OF THE CURRICULUM, JUST YET.” None of our mini-bus taxis are required by law to carry the warning “RIDE AT YOUR PERIL. DEATH AND DESTRUCTION USUALLY FOLLOWS.” And yet, if anything requires a warning label, it should be mini-bus taxis; in fact the label should adorn the entire, invariably un-roadworthy vehicle. And why don’t sub-humans like our politicians come with warning labels such as “VOTE NOW FOR GUARANTEED BROKEN PROMISES.”

Coming back to the case of the kid’s costume outfit which contained lead: this amply demonstrates that warning labels make no sense. The label allows unscrupulous manufacturers to literally get away with murder. They cover their arses by sticking warning labels on shit that should not be sold in the first instance. Warning labels just allow crooked lawyers to ply their trade with ease and also provide government authorities a false air of practicing social responsibility.

Common sense should be a compulsory subject at school. Maybe then we won’t have to put warning labels on stuff.

Please stop killing our rhinos, hunt down our politicians instead

The poaching of rhinos for their horns is reaching alarming proportions; South Africa alone lost 210 thus far this year. The recent spate of arrests in connection with this nauseating decimation of our endangered rhino species, is probably just the tip of the iceberg, as the huge demand from especially China and Vietnam seems to indicate a vast network of low-life scumbags, being involved.

A friend of mine recently commented that the rhino horn is only useful if strapped on. This is a common fallacy, as the rhino horn is ironically in huge demand, not for its aphrodisiac properties, but for its perceived medicinal value, although, it was at one time coveted in Yemen to make ornamental knife handles.

Orientals who believe in the medicinal properties of rhino horn indulge in the same kind of rabid, superstitious, uncritical thinking as Westerners who spend billions on homeopathic remedies. The sooner everyone understands that this shit doesn’t work, and never will, the sooner mankind as a whole can progress to the next level of evolution.

Studies carried out as far back as 1983, have shown that rhino horn has no medicinal value, and is composed of keratin; the same stuff as your fingernails and hair. Scientists have concluded that you would get the same effect from rhino horns as chewing your own fingernails.

So if any of you oriental keratin-crazy fools simply cannot do without your dose of rhino horn shavings, allow me to propose an alternative: why not hunt down all of Africa’s megalomaniacal politicians, pull off their fingernails one by one, and then scalp them too for a tasty aftersnack of hair-balls. I have heard rumors that Robert Mugabe and some of South Africa’s own, have quite exquisite, well-manicured fingernails.

Please spare the rhino and spear the politico…

The Sound Of Science

This video is apparently being tweeted about and posted on various blogs, and because it’s educational, yet amusing, it won’t hurt to post it here too.

And, oh, creationists can give it a miss; I don’t think you’ll find it amusing at all…